Tech's football helmets contain sensors that record impact forces.
Gay noted that he acquired information on the average size of linemen in the NFL over the past 80 years, coupled his findings with other information, and calculated typical forces with basic physics equations.
"The typical force of a big hit in the NFL is about 1,000 to 1,500 pounds," Gay said. "That's a huge force; the technical physics term is getting your bell rung. It's the size of a baby killer whale."
Gay's study of information over the 80-year period has led him to infer that the average energy in the line of scrimmage on any given play has doubled in this period.
While information on linemen weight gain in the past 80-years was readily available, Gay said that the changes in the linemen's 40-yard dash times were not. By discovering the average increase in speed for world-class sprinters over the period, Gay said he could infer that while the times would not be the same, the percentage increase would be.
Gay said that a common real-world analogy regarding the physics of football centers on former NFL quarterback Brett Favre.
"They say Brett Favre fires bullet passes," Gay said. "If you were to don bulletproof gloves and catch 40 rounds from a revolver, that's equivalent to catching 10 Brett Favre passes."
Gay and Duma both were able to shed light on common injuries in football.
"If a guy makes a cut in a (kick) return, he's putting about 800 pounds of force through his ankle, so this is why there are so many ankle injuries," Gay said.
Duma said that the results he views are dependant on a number of factors.
"There is a wide range of impact conditions," Duma. "We know that impact varies by position, by player, how they play the game, and by what part of their body gets hit."
Goforth said that by position, linebackers typically suffer the highest magnitude hits, and while linemen were hit the most, it was at a lesser impact.
"Every once in a while there is an outlier," Goforth said. He specified that researchers see cases where a wide receiver or quarterback will cause a spike in their position chart.
Goforth noted that it has yet to be determined whether one big blow or multiple blows is more likely to cause concussions.
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So you would have to take 4 bullets to the hand to equal the force of 1 Brett Farve pass? Am I reading this correctly?
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No, you are not reading it correctly. I think it means that if you were to weld together 40 bullets and fire them from a revolver, the force of that would be equal to the total force of 10 Brett Favre passes.
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yes, you are reading it correctly. but remember "if you were to don bulletproof gloves and CATCH the bullets"
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